Sunday, January 17, 2010

Former Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig snr has been accused of exploiting the cellular company's resources for benefit of his family, Times Live has reported.

Times Live reports that Knott-Craig snr allegedly gave his son, Alan Knott-Craig jnr, office space and millions of rands to build and promote his businesses.

Also among other charges put against Knott-Craig snr are that a company owned by his niece and nephew, and which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was awarded an exclusive multi-million three-year marketing and advertising contract without a proper tender process; and that he arranged for Vodacom to pay tens of thousands of rands for a call centre employee to be trained as a magician.

Knott-Craig snr is one of South Africa's most revered corporate leaders, having led Vodacom from inception in 1993 until 2008, and sits on several major boards. Vodacom is now the 16th largest company on the JSE, with a market value of R79-billion.

Vodacom has twice refused to release the KPMG report to the Labour Court and a subpoena was served on the company on January 8.

Knott-Craig jnr, 32, who has since taken a break from active business, has dismissed the allegations as those of "disgruntled former employees", and claims the report "completely exonerated" his father.

However, both Vodacom's current chairman, Peter Moyo, and former chairman, Oyama Mabandla, have told the Sunday Times that the report found there were charges that warranted "further investigation" and that "there were recommendations for areas that needed improvement".

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Opinion(s):

Why am I not surprised by what has happened at Vodacom? These service providers have had it too good too long. They have had licence to print money from day one, when Cell phones were first introduced. Vodacom and MTN have been fleecing the public and all that extra cash was bound to become a temptation to the big shots, (crooks), in charge. I will bet that more of this kind of crap will come out over time.